Geography

Bosnia and Herzegovina make up a
triangular-shaped republic, about half the size of Kentucky, on the Balkan
peninsula. The Bosnian region in the north is mountainous and covered with
thick forests. The Herzegovina region in the south is largely rugged, flat
farmland. It has a narrow coastline without natural harbors stretching 13
mi (20 km) along the Adriatic Sea.

Government

Emerging democracy, with a rotating, tripartite
presidency divided between predominantly Serb, Croatian, and Bosnian
political parties.

History

Called Illyricum in ancient times, the area now
called Bosnia and Herzegovina was conquered by the Romans in the 2nd and
1st centuries
B.C.
and folded into the Roman
province of Dalmatia. In the 4th and 5th centuries
A.D.
, Goths overran that portion of the declining
Roman Empire and occupied the area until the 6th century, when the
Byzantine Empire claimed it. Slavs began settling the region during the
7th century. Around 1200, Bosnia won independence from Hungary and endured
as an independent Christian state for some 260 years.

The expansion of the Ottoman Empire into the
Balkans introduced another cultural, political, and religious framework.
The Turks defeated the Serbs at the famous battle of Kosovo in 1389. They
conquered Bosnia in 1463. During the roughly 450 years Bosnia and
Herzegovina were under Ottoman rule, many Christian Slavs became Muslim. A
Bosnian Islamic elite gradually developed and ruled the country on behalf
of the Turkish overlords. As the borders of the Ottoman Empire began to
shrink in the 19th century, Muslims from elsewhere in the Balkans migrated
to Bosnia. Bosnia also developed a sizable Jewish population, with many
Jews settling in Sarajevo after their expulsion from Spain in 1492.
However, through the 19th century the term
Bosnian
commonly
included residents of all faiths. A relatively secular society,
intermarriage among religious groups was not uncommon.

Neighboring Serbia and Montenegro fought against
the Ottoman Empire in 1876 and were aided by the Russians, their fellow
Slavs. At the Congress of Berlin in 1878, following the end of the
Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878), Austria-Hungary was given a mandate to
occupy and govern Bosnia and Herzegovina, in an effort by Europe to ensure
that Russia did not dominate the Balkans. Although the provinces were
still officially part of the Ottoman Empire, they were annexed by the
Austro-Hungarian Empire on Oct. 7, 1908. As a result, relations with
Serbia, which had claims on Bosnia and Herzegovina, became embittered. The
hostility between the two countries climaxed in the assassination of
Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, by a
Serbian nationalist. This event precipitated the start of World War I
(1914–1918). Bosnia and Herzegovina were annexed to Serbia as part of the
newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes on Oct. 26, 1918. The
name was later changed to Yugoslavia in 1929.

When Germany invaded Yugoslavia in 1941, Bosnia
and Herzegovina were made part of Nazi-controlled Croatia. During the
German and Italian occupation, Bosnian and Herzegovinian resistance
fighters fought a fierce guerrilla war against the Ustachi, the Croatian
Fascist troops. At the end of World War II, Bosnia and Herzegovina were
reunited into a single state as one of the six republics of the newly
reestablished Communist Yugoslavia under Marshall Tito. His authoritarian
control kept the ethnic enmity of his patchwork nation in check. Tito
died in 1980, and with growing economic dissatisfaction and the fall of
the iron curtain over the next decade, Yugoslavia began to splinter.

In Dec. 1991, Bosnia and Herzegovina declared
independence from Yugoslavia and asked for recognition by the European
Union (EU). In a March 1992 referendum, Bosnian voters chose independence,
and President Alija Izetbegovic declared the nation an independent state. Unlike
the other former Yugoslav states, which were generally composed of a
dominant ethnic group, Bosnia was an ethnic tangle of Muslims (44%), Serbs
(31%), and Croats (17%), and this mix contributed to the duration and
savagery of its fight for independence.